1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements to production line installations for manufacturing articles in large or small series, and more particularly to the arrangement of the working stations and the devices and circuits supplying such stations and to a process for manufacturing articles on such a production line.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In large scale serial manufacture, conventional machining or assembly line installations are known which are formed by central transfer lines or conveyors on which the articles to be treated move successively in front of a series of working stations at each of which a worker performs an elementary treatment or assembly operation. The operations are performed either mechanically or manually. In the former case, their automation calls for heavy investments which are justified only by large scale serial production and obviates all versatility in their use. In the latter case, the repetitive nature of the jobs raises difficult human problems, inter alia in large scale serial manufacture at the numerous stations which have not yet been automated.
In all cases, production lines of this kind call for heavy investment in the supply means, such as the transfer conveyor systems and the means for equipping the numerous individual working stations. Moreover, manufacturing workshops having multiple and independent machines or individual working stations, such as are always used in unit or small scale serial production, require greater versatility to make such transfer systems economical, which versatility is normally accomplished only at the cost of greatly reduced productivity.